User Review Information

Fun, but...

1) The first thing players will notice is that Zero doesn’t look quite right. He is too short and his head is too big for his body. This is because the X sprite was modified to look like Zero. Thus, Zero’s animations are identical to the original X, except for a boost effect when he dashes. He also is missing his trademark long blonde hair. This makes him look very strange.

2) The Dr. Light capsules have been replaced by Dr. Wily Capsules, with the Wily sprite ripped from MM7 and a nice original design for the capsules themselves. It’s a cool idea, and I was looking forward to seeing what Wily would have to say as I collected the armor parts. However, he just says the same lines he does in the MMX4 cutscenes. I feel like a few rather obvious opportunities were missed here. First, why wasn’t any original dialogue written for Wily? He is such a great character, it almost writes itself! Second, I was so disappointed that Wily wasn’t wearing a Street Fighter outfit when I got the hadouken. Lastly, why don’t the capsule upgrades give Zero his armor he wore from MMX2 onward? Would have been so cool to see. However, I do very much like how Zero looks on the victory screen after defeating a boss.

3) The biggest problem with this hack - I never felt like I was playing as Zero. Sure, the sprite kind of looks like him, but the gameplay is completely unchanged. Outside of a few sprite swaps and slightly modified dialogue, this is the exact same MMX that was released 24 years ago. I would have liked to have see some actual changes to game mechanics implemented to make Zero feel/play differently than X.

So, the big question - is it fun? Well, yes. It is, after all, Mega Man X, one of the greatest games ever made. Just go into this with tempered expectations. The Zero Project, this is not. The author had a neat idea, and this hack is a decent start. It needs some more work before it can be called great, however.